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We join you here for a classic, hilly with lots of little cobbled sectors then a big downhill one on each circuit. The list of big favourites begins with S and ends with Ummerhill whilst the usual suspects who are among the 9 teams present, such as
Baugnies,
Vanbilsen and, if the hill is less selective,
Cancellara. Just 72 riders at the start for this fine spring day. Here's a quick overview of the day so far:
Peeters
Barta and
Boonratanathanakorn are today's break. They built a maximum gap of 7'30".
130km and 6'22"
120km and 6'17"
110km and 6'25"
100km and 6'10"
90km and 4'21"
80km and 3'47"
With 80km to go
Lagab made his move from quite far out to attempt a bridge.
70km and 3'23"
65km and
Lagab has replaced
Boonratanathanakorn.
60km and 3'01"
50km and 2'42"
Debesay is one of many dropped as the pack was thinned to 25 riders, along with
Nepomnyachsniy and
Gaday.
43km and
Summerhill along with teammate
Rodas Ochoa had bridged to the breakaway, they have 30 seconds and so it was all on
Strava to shut the gap as
Lierse and
Novatek wouldn't chase because of their man in the lead group. However the boys in orange set a huge pace and the peloton was 22 riders including the breakaway, dropping
Franzoi and
Sibilla.
We join you live now and what a pace the leaders are setting - the group is down to twelve and in it is:
Rodas Ochoa, Coronel and Summerhill
Baugnies, Gaudin, Gilbert, Potts and Langeveld
Barta
Peeters
Lagab and
Zepuntke.
Meanwhile we've found
Cancellara who appears to be ill - he's minutes behind whilst
Vanbilsen has two teammates in the chasing group containing unfriendly
Azteca and
Strava domestiques among others.
Barta has been dropped and
Peeters has dropped back to help
Vanbilsen and
Joseph who are TTTing 20 seconds behind with 35km left now.
The latter two make it back but could it be too late?
Baugnies attacks,
Summerhill and
Lagab in tow.
Zepuntke,
Vanbilsen and
Joseph find themselves outnumbered 2 to 1 here and so it'll be nigh on impossible to close the already 40 second gap, the remaining
Azteca and
Strava domestiques are spread across the road and will be provide no support at all!
Vanbilsen and
Joseph are dropped and we can pretty much confirm our podium if
Lagab can hang on just 10 more kilometres, he's perhaps wisely not taking pulls with 20km left.
Summerhill tests the legs near the foot of the final climb, it's too much for the Algerian who has 2'03" to defend against the now just 4 chasers:
Coronel*,
Langeveld*,
Gaudin* and
Zepuntke.
*Not actually chasing
12km to go, base of the final ascent and
Summerhill accelerates one too many times for
Baugnies, who's actually caught by
Lagab who's been about 15 seconds behind the whole time!
Langeveld knows his leader's podium is secure and goes clear for an attempt at 4th.
10km to go and the American has a safe 40 seconds.
Strava want it all -
Gilbert rejoins
Gaudin and they along with
Zepuntke chase down
Coronel in the hunt for 5th. Catch them they do, and so it's four riders for 5-8th whilst
Langeveld already has 2'22" and is looking at shutting the 1'04" to
Baugnies and
Lagab.
4km and a full minute for
Summerhill.
400m to go, over tough cobbles? He's a boss so he can sit up and soak in a tough win that looked easy.
Lagab cruises to an amazing 2nd place over
Baugnies.
Coronel pips
Gaudin for 5th, and that is our coverage for today in what's been a chaotic race: we hope you enjoyed it and see you again next time.
1 | Danny Summerhill | Azteca - NBCSN | 5h58'11 |
2 | Azzeddine Lagab | Eritel - Sonatrach | + 46 |
3 | Jérôme Baugnies | Strava | s.t. |
4 | Sebastian Langeveld | Strava | + 1'36 |
5 | Samuel Coronel | Azteca - NBCSN | + 4'37 |
6 | Damien Gaudin | Strava | s.t. |
7 | Ruben Zepuntke | Wiesenhof - Andrtiz | s.t. |
8 | Philippe Gilbert | Strava | s.t. |
9 | Stijn Joseph | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | + 5'24 |
10 | Kenneth Vanbilsen | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | s.t. |
11 | Marc Potts | Strava | s.t. |
12 | Manuel Oseas Rodas Ochoa | Azteca - NBCSN | s.t. |
13 | Lucas Manuel Gaday | SanCor | + 6'37 |
14 | Marlon Antonio Samayoa | Azteca - NBCSN | s.t. |
15 | Christoph Taubel | Wiesenhof - Andrtiz | + 8'41 |
16 | Ricardo Ferreira | Porto - Prio | + 9'18 |
17 | Louis Verhelst | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | s.t. |
18 | German Anibal Orue | Azteca - NBCSN | s.t. |
19 | Mirko Selvaggi | Strava | s.t. |
20 | Daniel Allonca | Porto - Prio | + 10'39 |
21 | Michel Sibilla | Novatek-Panarmenian.net | s.t. |
22 | Julien Vermote | Novatek-Panarmenian.net | + 11'18 |
23 | Kevin Peeters | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | s.t. |
24 | Kevin Eeckhout | Novatek-Panarmenian.net | s.t. |
25 | Enrico Franzoi | Shimano - Siam Cement | s.t. |
26 | Jan Barta | Novatek-Panarmenian.net | s.t. |
27 | Masatoshi Oba | Shimano - Siam Cement | + 12'08 |
28 | Vyacheslav Kuznetsov | Novatek-Panarmenian.net | + 12'36 |
29 | Fernando Gaviria | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | + 13'42 |
30 | Martin Velits | Novatek-Panarmenian.net | s.t. |
31 | Laurens Sweeck | Shimano - Siam Cement | + 15'06 |
32 | Konrad Dabkowski | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | + 15'47 |
33 | Meiyin Wang | Shimano - Siam Cement | s.t. |
34 | Laurent Didier | Strava | s.t. |
35 | Alexandr Nepomnyachsniy | Shimano - Siam Cement | s.t. |
36 | Salfo Bikienga | Eritel - Sonatrach | s.t. |
37 | Daniel Schorn | Wiesenhof - Andrtiz | s.t. |
38 | Ruben Guerreiro | Porto - Prio | s.t. |
39 | Lukas Postlberger | Wiesenhof - Andrtiz | s.t. |
40 | Josh Atkins | Wiesenhof - Andrtiz | s.t. |
41 | Chequan Richardson | Azteca - NBCSN | s.t. |
42 | Luis Pulido | Azteca - NBCSN | s.t. |
43 | Domingos Gonçalves | Porto - Prio | s.t. |
44 | Dadley Corwin | Azteca - NBCSN | + 16'54 |
45 | Komi Dossouvi | Eritel - Sonatrach | s.t. |
46 | Angelo Tulik | Strava | + 19'24 |
47 | Antonio Carvalho | Porto - Prio | + 20'11 |
48 | Mekseb Debesay | Eritel - Sonatrach | + 20'46 |
49 | Juan José Haedo | SanCor | s.t. |
50 | Maksym Vasilyev | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | s.t. |
51 | Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn | Shimano - Siam Cement | + 21'55 |
52 | Luis Afonso | Porto - Prio | s.t. |
53 | Bruno Silva | Porto - Prio | + 25'06 |
54 | Ivan Kovalev | Wiesenhof - Andrtiz | + 25'46 |
55 | Wout Van Aert | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | + 27'07 |
56 | Cristian Omar Clavero | SanCor | s.t. |
57 | Salem Kemboi | Eritel - Sonatrach | + 27'58 |
58 | Kevin Predatsch | Wiesenhof - Andrtiz | s.t. |
59 | Lucas Sebastian Haedo | SanCor | + 28'46 |
60 | Samuel Caldeira | Porto - Prio | s.t. |
61 | Shane Archbold | Wiesenhof - Andrtiz | s.t. |
62 | Amanuel Gebrezgabihier | Eritel - Sonatrach | s.t. |
63 | Mihran Avetisyan | Novatek-Panarmenian.net | s.t. |
64 | Fabian Cancellara | Novatek-Panarmenian.net | s.t. |
65 | Similo Nyoni | Eritel - Sonatrach | + 31'15 |
66 | Laureano Rosas | SanCor | + 34'55 |
67 | Anibal Borrajo | SanCor | + 35'57 |
68 | Alejandro Duran | SanCor | s.t. |
69 | Ahmad Haidar Anuawar | Shimano - Siam Cement | + 38'56 |
70 | Chun Wing Leung | Shimano - Siam Cement | + 39'51 |
71 | Matala Seboka | Eritel - Sonatrach | + 41'54 |